Month: June 2016

Have you ever read a book that climbs into your brain and refuses to leave?

Last year, I picked up a copy of Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer for 50 cents at a used bookstore. I had read Into the Wild a few years before and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to give this one a try. More than a year later, I finally opened it up…and finished it within 48 hours. Once I got about 10 pages in, despite knowing how it ended, I could. not. stop. reading.

Even now, weeks later, it’s still on my mind. This book just…destroyed me. I’ve read plenty of books that made me cry (looking at you, The Book Thief), but I’m talking about something different. I never cried during this book—it was less of an acute sadness, and more of a heavy weight on my soul. When I finished it, I got so quiet and somber for so long that Chris, concerned, asked me if I was going to be okay.

I’ve been struggling all week with what—if anything—to post here. The thing is…I am an over-thinker and a conflict-avoider. Whether it’s a challenging situation at work or things happening in the world, it always takes me some time to gather my thoughts. My tendency is always not to jump into the fray, but to pull back, into my head. To read and think and read some more and worry about what I’m doing and if it’s enough.

There is an incredibly nuanced and complex mess of problems facing us right now. I don’t think that there is a single solution here—not even a single issue at play. It is complicated, and difficult, and frankly it’s hard not to throw up my hands and give in to despair. But that is one thing that I won’t let happen, because despair is a victory for hate.

All I know right now is: We have to come together. We have to keep trying. We have to keep loving. We have to reach out and listen to one another. With compassion and understanding, we need to face the hard truths about ourselves, our culture, our country and its threats—together.

Two years ago, Chris and I checked a BIG item off the bucket list: visiting Yosemite National Park!

Along Tioga Road

The view from Sentinel Dome

Giant redwoods at Mariposa Grove

It’s still one of my favorite trips I’ve ever taken. Recently, I posted a throwback picture to Instagram, and a friend—who’s planning his first visit to the park this summer—asked if I had any tips. I promptly wrote him a novel of an email. So, with Yosemite on my mind and most of this already written, I thought it would be fun to share some of my experience here!